Rising Leaders Network Brings Awareness to Affordable Housing

For many attorneys, working on affordable housing developments begins and ends with paper transactions. There is no opportunity to visit the physical development, or to see the tangible results of their work. The New York Housing Conference’s (NYHC’s) Rising Leaders Network (RLN) is working to change that.

Akin to a junior board of the NYHC, the RLN focuses on affordable housing policy issues. Realizing that experience makes more informed policy, the RLN began organizing Site Tours. Once a month, the RLN will host a group of primarily attorneys and developers (although anyone can attend) to visit an affordable housing development in New York City.

HSE attorney James A. Allen is a member of RLN’s Site Tour committee. He and other volunteers work to program the tours. “We want to give people a ‘this is what it looks like in real life’ perspective,” says James. “A lot of times, people’s exposure to these types of projects is limited to paper. You can work on a project for a long time but never actually get to see it.”

RLN Site Tour of Atrium at Sumner.

James says the site selection criteria is focused on providing regular attendees with exposure to a variety of different project types. “We look at a diverse set of sites throughout the year. Not only do we want to go to different boroughs, we also want to highlight different phases and stages of development.” Tour participants might visit a completed, resident-occupied development one month and an active construction site the next.

RLN Site Tour participants listen to a presentation at Atrium at Sumner.

RLN’s site tours also serve as a resource for developers who want to share best practices. “The affordable housing community is very active, and filled with people who want to keep improving on what it means to be an affordable housing development,” says James. “These tours are a great way for developers to learn from each other.”

RLN Site Tours provide participants the opportunity to ask questions about affordable housing development.

In addition to serving as a member of RLN’s Site Tour Committee, James also serves as Co-Chair of RLN’s Volunteer Committee. If you are interested in participating in Site Tours or volunteering with RLN, you can email James at jallen@hseny.com.